Union chiefs have accused privatised rail companies of ‘milking’ a system that sees them compensated for lost earnings as a result of bad weather affecting services.

Network Rail , which owns and operates Britain’s railways, compensates train operators when there are delays caused by circumstances which fall under Schedule 8 of the Office of Rail and Road’s regulations.

If they are, operators receive money when their timetables are affected by unplanned service disruption, such as adverse weather which has caused a delay of more than one minute.

It is designed to compensate the train operators for loss of earnings and in 2016/17, Network Rail made payments to 22 rail companies totalling £180m.

Heavy snowfall caused disruption to travel (Image: PA)

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) workers union claimed the private operators were taking advantage of a system which was ‘rigged’ in their favour, something the companies strenuously deny.

General Secretary of the RMT, Mick Cash, said: “Today RMT is demanding to know how much the taxpayer has shovelled into the pockets of the private train companies during the adverse weather over the past week under our rotten rail franchising system.

“The whole racket on our railways was rigged from the off by the Tories so that the profits are privatised and the risks are carried by the public.

“It’s a scandal that has led to a bail out culture on our railways which is being exploited by the train operators while passengers are freezing in luggage racks on broken down trains.

“RMT will be raising this issue with the unions’ parliamentary group and we are demanding answers and not the usual hot air we have come to expect from Chris Grayling and this Government.”

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However the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train companies, said: “These payments are overseen by the rail regulator which says that they keep costs down for taxpayers and fare payers, and they are completely separate from the money customers rightly receive for delays.

“The payments compensate train operators for lost revenue when fewer people travel due to disruption and they encourage rail companies to work together to improve punctuality.”

An Office of Rail and Road spokesman said: “The performance regime incentivises Network Rail and operators to keep unplanned disruptions to a minimum, and reduces the risk to train companies of operating and investing in the industry, thereby reducing the cost to taxpayers.

“In contrast to the passenger compensation regime, performance regime payments are not payable for particular instances of disruption.

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“Instead, the performance regime enables operators to plan their businesses on the basis of an expected level of performance – if performance is better than expected then operators pay a bonus to Network Rail, whereas if it is worse than expected then Network Rail compensates them.

“The principle of the regime is that operators should be no better or worse off as a result of changes in the performance of Network Rail or other operators.”